


high achiever don't you see? (baby nothing comes for free)

by AwesomeBooknerd



Series: there is very little left of me and it’s never coming back [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: BAMF Nancy Wheeler, Character Study, Gen, Kinda, Lots of Cursing, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Nancy Wheeler-Centric, One Shot, Stream of Consciousness, all characters except Nancy are just mentioned p much, ambiguously canon, bro idk what this is i cant tag it, but not in a good way sorry folks!, i cannot seriously tag smth like 'girl power' but its here!, i guess??, kinda??, sorry my dudes i just curse a lot when i'm angry and i'm Projecting, surprise! another ST vent fic!, surprised thats not a tag, that funky fresh gifted kid feel, this is messy, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23111686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwesomeBooknerd/pseuds/AwesomeBooknerd
Summary: Nancy Wheeler's been playing by the rules all of her life, but now she's angry. At herself, at the world, at her mom, she doesn't know- she's just done.
Series: there is very little left of me and it’s never coming back [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683265
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16





	high achiever don't you see? (baby nothing comes for free)

**Author's Note:**

> Oh henlo I'm back again w another ST vent fic! I was gonna wait and try to finish at least part/more of one of the Big Multichapter Fics I'm working on rn but then I had a kinda shitty night so y'all can have this! It's significantly messier & I think shorter than my Steve one but then again I wrote this in like 45 minutes and then didn't edit or proofread it so! Sorry! I'm j vibing 
> 
> title from Are You Satisfied? by Marina and the Diamonds
> 
> WARNINGS:  
> mentions of sexual harassment/p*dophilia, nothing at all graphic or confirmed  
> shitty mothering! sorry Karen Wheeler stans but I have Mommy Issues  
> just a ton of cursing I think?? idk its the vibes

Sometimes Nancy thought she was walking on eggshells. Just always, everywhere tiptoeing to avoid misstepping and breaking something fragile. Or perhaps she was a contestant in some fucked up beauty pageant, or a ballerina en pointe, except with no training or skill to rely on.

She knew the rules. Smile. Be polite. Be a pretty face, but not too pretty. Be smart but certainly not too smart. Do your work. Keep moving, keep it up, and don’t let it get to you. Don’t let anyone see it get to you. Be a _good girl, Nancy_.

And she wanted to be the girl who could tell everyone who said that stuff to _go fuck yourself, I’m not your fucking toy_ but it’s _hard_. How do you rebel against a system that you’ve been trapped in and listening to your whole life? How do you stop caring about being ‘perfect’ when you’ve been straining for it your whole life?

She thought school was the worst in this way. That was her _thing_ , her talent, she was the one the other kids went to for help, or the ones they not-so-discreetly cheated off of on tests, she was the girl all the PTA moms would whisper about, how _wasn’t she doing just a little too well in Chemistry_ (especially compared to their children, she thought privately) _was there maybe_ something else _going on there? She was always just a bit too pretty for her own good, and you know what they say about that teacher…_ and she would contain that fountain of anger she could feel bubbling up in her chest as she walked through from the entrance to her living room, her mother looking a little too guilty meeting her eyes after the conversation abruptly cut off.

Well, _fuck that_ , she was smart and she was trying her best! She worked so goddamn hard to keep her grades as good as they were, and what did she get for it? Dirty looks from suburban women? Furtive glances to her paper from her classmates? Maybe a fucking pat on the back from the principal (and she wished _he_ would stop touching her, she knew what they said about the Chemistry teacher, but he seemed fine, it was always the principal that made her nervous-)? The only thing it really seemed to do was exhaust her. Nancy Wheeler was so fucking tired all the time.

And she didn’t even see a point to it now! She’d thrown all this effort into staying in line, being a ‘good girl’, doing well in school, and now there were fucking _supernatural entities_ entering _her town_ and messing with the people she cared about and _no one outside of her little circle even cared?_ People died! Barb died! And no one else at school even bat an eye? Why the fuck was she putting so much effort into this shitty little town and her appearence within it if all it gave back was apathy and hurt? Why should she even care about school when things so much more important were happening around her and _running rampant in her backyard_?

And her mom didn’t seem to care either, big surprise! Karen Wheeler, more obsessed with her perfect reputation and keeping her daughter in line than worried about her son letting a traumatized little girl live in their basement for a week? Shocker! Nancy never would have guessed!

Or not. Nancy had _known_ that her mother was always most concerned about her image. And she was a part of that image, of course. Anything Mike did could be played off as ‘boys being boys’, but Nancy had no such excuse. She has to be on point all the time or _what would the town think?_ So Nancy got all As, dressed just right, smiled at everyone, was the perfect little girl her mother had always dreamed of.

But now why should she care? If the world is ending anyways, fuck her mom, she’s going to do whatever the hell she wants! And if that means not doing her work or telling the principal to _stop fucking hugging her, she doesn’t like it_ or dating the ‘wrong guy’ or no guy at all, so be it! Who fucking cares!

If the world (supernatural or otherwise) keeps growling at her heels, she might as well growl back. To hell with being a ‘good girl’, she’ll settle for being herself.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed! If not bls don't tell me I'll cry,, this is straight up vent/projection fic from your local angry lowkey burntout gifted kid! see you next time hopefully with a longer fic bc this was way shorter than i wanted!


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